Everton are on the verge of appointing a new manager, according to a reliable journalist.

Sky Sports journalist Gianluca Di Marzio claims on his personal website that the Toffees board have identified Shakhtar Donetsk boss Paulo Fonseca as the successor to Ronald Koeman and are closing in on a deal for the Portuguese.

It is understood that Everton want to hire the 44-year-old immediately, even though Ukrainian giants Shakhtar would like to keep him for their final Champions League match against Manchester City next Wednesday.

The Dutchman was sacked over five weeks ago and now it seems that they are finally started to make solid progress due to heavy defeats to Atalanta and Southampton last week.

European boss Fonseca joined Shakhtar in May 2016, winning the Ukrainian Premier League in his first season.

However after just over a year at the helm with Shakhtar, Di Marzio is reporting that his departure is imminent, with Merseyside seeming to be his next destination.

Football Insider Verdict

Fonseca is certainly a left-field appointment and would perhaps seem to be a choice of majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri, who has had his eye on managers from abroad throughout the process of replacing Koeman. Sam Allardyce is still the favourite for the job and would certainly be less of a risk. Watford’s Marco Silva was the number one target to begin with but after their interest in him came to a dead-end, it seems that they have gone looking overseas for another up-and-coming Portuguese boss. Fonseca could prove to follow a similar path to Silva, but it would definitely be a risk. It’s desperate times on Merseyside and the Blues need their next appointment to be risk-free.